Tips for adding wood...

The el-cheapo bleach doesn't work - well at least it didn't work when we tried it as the top layer of Purigen went white and all the rest stayed brown. After chatting to a few people, they way to go is with the JIK original bleach (non-scented). I've checked out one or two shops here and unfortunately they only have the scented variety so will go to another shopping centre tomorrow and report back whether it made a difference or not.

 

thanks for the info Vee !

just thinking out loud here, my purigen is currently only going brown on the outside, where most of the crap comes into contact with it, so i shifted the beads around a bit to get some "fresher" beads to filter now, wouldn't the same principle apply to when you regenerate it? i mean, its a small bead, almost like sand, it will probably compact when its laying in the bleach solution, so aggrivating the compacted state should expose more beads to the bleach.

Anyway, i'll be scouring for original bleach when i actually need to regen this packet, it should be a while still though.. dunno how long this mopani root will be leaching

 

We stirred the Purigen around in the cheapo bleach solution and it did nadah......

 

ah, good to know, maybe its just not strong stuff, we'll wait to hear if jik orig. did anything

 

when to regenerate

this is a good indication of when it is finally necessary to regenerate the bag. if its still lightly coloured, seachem says its still working...

a before and after shot

i didn't know it should go THIS brown... apparently this is what the directions mean by "dark brown"

 

I've regenerated my 2 packets, using a 50% P&p Jik solution and stirred it and rubbed the packets as often as I could during the 24 hour period. You will notice that the outside beads become creamy and you need to shake the packet to stir things up.
After about 30 hours, it came out like new! I then placed it in clean tap water and rinced it well during the next day, before using it. It looked like new after regeneration.
I hav't used the loose product, but can comment that the product in the small 100g. packets work very well in my 100L breeding tanks - no matter what it costs!

 

i got the loose 250ml bottle, put the beads in an old hagen ammosorb sachet, heat sealed it, and pulled a stocking piece over the sachet as the micron density wasn't small enough... its working fine, i'll probably buy some Seachem "The bag" bags when AK get stock in